


Cat in the Bag

by SkyGiantz



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: But with good reason, Gen, Identity Reveal, Misunderstandings, POV Outsider, Peter Parker is paranoid, he also has the wrong idea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 20:16:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyGiantz/pseuds/SkyGiantz
Summary: Maybe, it’s because she’s quiet and easily overlooked, but she notices things that most people don’t. Like, the boy in her Calculus class who doodles flowers in the margin of his notes before hurriedly erasing them. Or, her Civics teacher who hasn’t worn her wedding ring since last Tuesday. But, especially the boy in her homeroom who’s small and shy, but sports bruised knuckles in the morning that disappear by the time the bell rings.





	Cat in the Bag

**Author's Note:**

> My hands slipped. Whoops. But seriously, I might have a thing for reveal fics. Cindy is a real Decathlon member, even though she only gets like, 30 seconds of screen time.

Cindy Xu was living her best life. A sophomore at Midtown High School (which was already an accomplishment considering the school’s 20% acceptance rate) she’s rated as one of the highest in her graduating class. On top of that, she’s in all AP level courses, a member of the national winning Academic Decathlon team, and best yet, on track to be accepted into Columbia University- her dream school. Although divorced, she also has a great relationship with both of her parents. She has a small, but close group of friends, and when she can, volunteers at the animal shelter on 6th Ave.

The thing is, her life is so good, so absolutely perfect in the eyes of others, that she doesn’t have the courage to admit to her oh, so proud first-generation Chinese parents, that she hates how boring her life has become. She should be grateful. She _knows_ she should be, except lately, she has been more invested in the lives of others than her own.

She’s always been an observant child- although her parents never once blamed her, Cindy knows that she’s the reason for her parent’s divorce. She just had to notice the blonde piece of hair on her father’s jacket. She couldn’t have just let it be. Stupid.

Maybe, it’s because she’s quiet and easily overlooked, but she notices things that most people don’t. It took a while for her to learn that sometimes, the things she sees should not be repeated. Like, the boy in her Calculus class who doodles flowers in the margin of his notes before hurriedly erasing them. Or, her Civics teacher who hasn’t worn her wedding ring since last Tuesday. But, especially the boy in her homeroom who’s small and shy, but sports bruised knuckles in the morning that disappear by the time the bell rings. He hides it well- pulling down his sleeves and never raising his hand- but Cindy still notices. She’s always noticed.

Sometimes though, the boy, Peter Parker, another member of the Academic Decathlon team, has more than partially hidden bruised knuckles. Sometimes he has a swollen lip. Or, even on one occasion, a limp. She doesn’t know Peter very well- if at all- but she does know that Peter is smart and shy, and only hangs around with his partner-in-crime, Ned Leeds. The two of them, thicker than thieves, and only talk to each other during Decathlon practice, unless to it’s to answer questions.

At first, Cindy thought Peter was being bullied.

Except, she watches Flash, the only one on the Decathlon team who gives Peter a hard time, but the worst he’s done is pull the chair out from under Peter. A prank. If anything, she doubts Flash dislikes Peter as much as he puts out. Their dynamic seems more like a one-sided rivalry, with Flash always trying to upstage Peter, and Peter trying to avoid the spotlight.

She wonders if starting a journal to list Peter’s injuries would be too weird. Probably. But, other than watching the shy boy from afar, Cindy doesn’t know what to do; how to help.

And then, on mornings like this one, Cindy wonders if she even should help. Sure, Peter sports dark circles under his eyes that makes her wince when she notices him slink into the back of the class, entirely unnoticed to everyone but her. But, his knuckles are also a bright, angry red that has her thinking that maybe Peter isn’t as innocent as he first appears. Because, surely, with hands that battered, Peter must have been dishing it out as much as he was taking it.

The thought is ridiculous, and Cindy is all too aware. She doubts Peter weighs more than 130 pounds, and the thought of him purposefully going up against, say, one of the jocks from the wrestling team, seems laughable. But, what else could it be? Fight club? Ha.

Cindy shakes her head, frustrated, and not at all paying attention to their homeroom teacher’s announcements for the day. She wants to forget about this strange boy, but something about him keeps continuously pulling her attention back. Peter yawns, resting his head in his hand. He’s wearing a too thin grey jacket, over what looks to be a flannel shirt. His jeans barely meet his ankles, and his sneakers are muddy. She doesn’t know much about Peter, but she can guess that he’s a scholarship student, much like herself, by his appearance alone.

It takes another minute, but Peter finally shrugs off his jacket and slings it across the back of his chair. He yawns again. Then, suddenly, his eye’s flick to hers, and she is forced to look away. Cindy curses to herself mentally for being so obvious. She takes out a pen and her notebook and pretends to write something down. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Peter look out the window, but call it a gut feeling, she still feels like he’s watching her.

Just when she decides to talk to him after class, the bell rings and Peter dashes off before she even gets a chance to stand. Cindy blinks. Has Peter always been that quick? Or, could he sense she wanted to talk to him. She hums in consideration, flips to the last page of her Physics notebook, and writes Peter’s name at the top of the page. Under his name, she then writes the word “paranoid” with a question mark after it. The shuffling of other students reminds Cindy that homeroom is over, and as if suddenly realizing what she just did, she snaps her notebook closed, shoves it in her bag, and books it.

The entire day, Cindy’s thoughts are occupied by Peter, unsure what to make of the suddenly interesting boy. In her physics class, her fingers brush past the page where she wrote Peter’s name. She doesn’t dare flip to the page though. Not in class where her classmates will undoubtedly get the wrong idea. Cindy is aware there’s a word for people like her. Stalker.

Her pen taps the paper, and she considers just asking Peter during Decathlon practice. But, somehow the thought of asking Peter about the concealer he uses to hide his black eyes doesn’t seem like it would go over well. He would probably just deny it, and then avoid her for the rest of the year. Yeah, no, she wants to figure out this boy- not scare him off.

When lunch rolls around, Cindy sits with her friends like she does every day. They eat and chat about the assignment for Literature due at the end of the week, and Cindy hums along. She’s not really thinking clearly when she asks her two friends, “Hey, what do you guys think about Peter Parker?”

The conversation tapers off, and she looks up embarrassed. “The skinny kid?” her friend Kat asks. She nods her head. Her friends share an amused look between themselves, before turning back to her.

“He’s in my gym class,” her other friend, Eliza, starts. “He’s always with that Ned kid, but I saw him lift his shirt once, and he’s surprisingly ripped.”

“Really?” Kat asks. “You know, I can kind of see that. Like, swimmer body. All lean and toned- does he play any sports?” Eliza shrugs.

“He’s on the Decathlon team,” Cindy says. “I don’t think he has time for sports.”

“Maybe he works out then,” Eliza says. “He was pretty quick when we ran the mile a couple months ago.”

“Ooh, yeah, I can totally picture him as a runner,” Kat offers. Cindy rolls her eyes.

“You say that about any skinny boy.”

“Don’t worry Cind, I’m not about to steal your crush. Besides, he’s way too smart for me. I like the dumb ones,” Kat grins.

Cindy sputters. “My-my crush! You think I like Peter?” Eliza raises a brow.

“Then why would you bring him up?” she asks. “It’s not like you to ask about boys. That’s more Kat’s thing.”

Cindy stops and thinks about it. She doesn’t like Peter- not like that anyways- but really, is this such a bad thing? She’d rather be labeled the girl who has a crush than as a stalker. “I just think he’s interesting,” she says.

Kat snickers. “Interesting huh? Which part do you find most interesting? His smile? His eyes? Or maybe it’s his—”

“Kat!” she cuts off her friend, blushing. They both laugh at her.

She goes to Decathlon practice later, and can’t say she’s surprised when Peter’s doesn’t show. His attendance is truly awful. Halfway through practice, she decides to ask Michelle.

“Where’s Peter?” Cindy asks her captain.

  
“Isn’t that the question.”

“Yeah!” pipes up Flash from across the room. “How come you let Parker miss practice all the time, and never say anything? He shouldn’t be a starter on the team if he doesn’t show half the time.” Michelle eye’s Flash critically.

Cindy pales. She didn’t mean to get Peter in trouble. “I’ll talk with him,” Michelle says. “Ned, make sure Peter is here tomorrow.” The Filipino boy looks caught off-guard.

“Um, I’ll try,” he offers. Then he turns to Flash and says, “Peter had to go to his internship today. That’s why he couldn’t come. I was going to tell Michelle after practice.” Flash sneers at Ned.

“Yeah right, just admit there is no internship and Parker is making it up!”

“It totally exists!” Ned defends.

“I bet Parker’s just skipping.”

“Hey!” Michelle calls, cutting the two of them off. “Enough. We’re in the middle of practice.” She glares at Flash until he adopts a cowed expression. Then, turning to Seymour, she asks, “In what year did Brazil declare its independence from Portugal?”

She sighs in relief that Peter didn’t get in trouble for her outburst, and silently ignores the considering look Ned gives her.

Later that night, when she’s holed up in her bedroom at her mom’s house, she opens up her physics notebook and flips to the page where she wrote Peter’s name. Pen tapping against the page, she writes the word, “athletic”. Then, thinking about what her friend Eliza said earlier, she underlines it. She also adds the word, “smart”. That much she knows is true from her own observations of Peter during Decathlon practice. She taps her pen some more, thoughtful. Flash’s words ring in her head. “There is no internship.”

It’s not that she really doubted Peter had a Stark internship. Why would he lie about that? But something propels her to write the word “internship” with a question mark after it in her notebook. She looks at her growing list and feels a wave of embarrassment. This is crazy. She’s crazy. Suddenly, she tears out the page in her notebook, crumples it up, and tosses it in her wastebasket. There’s a beat of silence that she's is all too aware of. Her house is completely silent. Groaning in frustration, she re-opens her notebook, writes the initials P.P at the top of the page, and rewrites everything.

Grabbing the laptop from her desk, she pulls up the search browser, and types, “Stark internship.” 2,310,000 results pop up. Cindy sighs. This might take a while.

The next day in class, Cindy anxiously waits to see what injuries Peter will have this morning. She feels a little sick when she realizes she’s somewhat excited to see what new bruises Peter will have. Five minutes after the bell rings, and just when she thinks Peter’s not going to show up at all, in he strolls silently taking a seat at his desk. Their homeroom teacher doesn’t ask, and Peter doesn’t offer. He’s still wearing gloves so Cindy can’t see his hands, but she does notice a slight wince as he lowers himself into his seat. Maybe yesterday was leg-day, she thinks, trying not to jump to conclusions.

He angles his body away from her, and Cindy is suddenly paranoid that he’s doing it on purpose. But, no, that’s just crazy. He stares out the window the entire time, the complete opposite her direction. Their teacher walks down the aisle, passing out a sheet of paper as she does. She hears Peter mumble a scratchy “thank you”. Could he be sick? Peter’s still wearing his gloves and jacket. The collar of his jacket is zipped all the way up. At first, she thought it was because Peter was cold, but it’s been nearly ten minutes since he’s rolled in, and he has yet to shed his winter layers.

She has a moment of self-awareness, and for the first time wonders if she’s searching for something that isn’t there. Is she obsessed?

No.

Yes?

How did that happen?

This time, she doesn’t try to catch him after class, but Peter runs off just the same.

It’s purely coincidence when she spots Peter in the hallway before last period. It’s during the middle of her U.S. history class- there’s a substitute teacher today- so Cindy doesn’t really mind asking for the bathroom pass to wander the halls for a while. She’s heading toward her locker when she spots Peter exit the bathroom.

“Hey, Peter,” she calls without thinking. His back is toward her, but she notices the way Peter winces like he’s been caught in a lie. She strides up to him, and Peter slowly turns to face her.

“Cindy, hey. Hi. What’s up?” His voice is no longer scratchy, she notes. Nor, does he look sick. A little tired maybe, but that’s nothing unusual.

She shrugs. “Class is boring. Don’t really feel like going back just yet.” She waves her hall pass for emphasis. 

“Oh, yeah. Well,” Peter waves his own pass too. “I have Calc, so I should probably get back,” he starts to turn. Two weeks ago, Peter pulled out his folder during Decathlon practice to show Ned something, and Cindy caught a glimpse of his test grade, so she _knows_ he’s doing just fine in that class.

“Why do you have your backpack with you?” she asks suddenly. While his back is turned, she spares a glance at his neck. There’s nothing there, and Cindy is not sure if she should feel surprised or not.

“What? Oh, I, uh, just grabbed it. Wasn’t really thinking. Will I see you in practice later?”

Topic change. Cindy recognizes it for what it is. Her attention narrows.

“Yeah. I’ll be there. See you in a bit, Peter.” Cindy gives him a slight wave, accompanied by one of her saccharine smiles. She heads straight for the bathroom, pulls out her phone, and in the notepad section, types “HIDING SOMETHING” in all caps. Her dad acted similar the weeks leading up to his affair with her mother. She was only eight, but clearly remembers his skittish behavior and abrupt topic changes. She recognizes the same signs in Peter. Then, the thought strikes her. Suddenly, and forcefully, Cindy is typing into her phone “disappearing injuries?????” and adds five questions marks for good measure. The thought is absolutely ridiculous. But, what if Peter could somehow…

No. She shakes her head and heads back for class. Abilities. She’s heard the word many times. The world is changing, people say. But Peter? The idea is crazy.

She remembers the way the sky split open eight years ago. She remembers the aliens, an unthawed soldier from World War Two, and the gods themselves fighting in a battle that everyone thought would be their last.

It really isn’t that crazy.

Cindy returns to class and the video serves as a good distraction for her racing mind.

She’s ten minutes late to Decathlon practice that evening and grateful that Michelle doesn’t call her out on it. Especially since it’s the day after she rudely pointed out Peter’s absence, even if getting him in trouble wasn’t her intention. The reason she’s late is that she was freezing her fingers off, standing outside to call the number that was listed under the Stark scholarship page. After about an hour of searching, Cindy couldn’t find anything about an internship, but she did find a page about all the different scholarships Stark offered, and how to apply to them. Not what she was searching for, but intrigued, all the same, she decides to call the help number listed at the bottom of the page.

After about 15 minutes of automated voice prompts, Cindy finally connects with a real person. Club starts in about ten minutes so she keeps her questions short. She decides to ask about the “first-generation immigrant scholarship” that she’s genuinely interested in. The man on the phone tells her all about the requirements to apply, and when the deadline is. As the conversation tapers off, and the man asks, “Any other questions?” Cindy finally asks what’s been on her mind the entire day.

  
“Yes, actually, I was wondering if Stark industry offered any internships. I’m a Sophmore now, but I’m not sure if that really matters.”

“Stark industry doesn’t offer any internships for high school students,” the man answers. “However, there are a few entry-level job positions for graduate and undergraduate students.” The man goes on to explain some of the criteria and whatnot, but Cindy hardly hears him. All she hears is Flash’s ringing voice. _“There is no internship. There is no internship.”_

During practice, she sits directly next to Peter. She doesn’t even have to look at him to see the glance he shares with Ned. He sits ramrod straight in his seat. Peter thinks Cindy knows something, and Cindy, too curious for her own good, is determined to find out exactly what it is Peter thinks she knows.

Soon enough it’s Friday, the day her Literature project is due, that she sees Ned talking to Kat at her usual lunch table. Ned spots her the moment she enters the cafeteria, says something to Kat, and disappears. She strides up to Kat, eyes locked on Ned the whole time. “What was that about?” she asks her friend. Eliza isn’t there yet, so it’s just to two of them.

Kat shrugs, smiling slightly. “Nothing important- but hey, are you going to the winter formal? I’m going with Roman, but maybe Peter will be there!”

Cindy can’t roll her eyes hard enough.

* * *

 

 

It’s after one of her Saturday afternoon volunteer shifts at the shelter, that Cindy comes to a realization. Well, actually, she was in the middle of ordering a latte at Starbucks when she realized it, and let out a sudden, “Holy Shit!” that startled the barista taking her order.

The backpack. Peter was hiding something in the backpack. That’s why he brought it with him to the bathroom and got all panicky when she asked about it. She has absolutely no idea what he’s hiding that could have to do with his non-existent Stark internship and disappearing injuries, but she’s sure like nothing else, that his backpack is related somehow.

It’s a gut feeling.

She has a plan. A really awful, terrible, no good plan. But, a plan nevertheless. The question is, does she have the _balls_ to go through with it? She imagines the disappointment on both her parent’s face if they ever find out what she considers doing. She would lose her scholarship. Her ticket to Columbia. Their respect. Everything. Cindy would lose everything. And, for what? To find out some big secret that she thinks Peter is hiding, when it could just as well be a stash of porno magazines in his bag.

So, yeah. She realizes that’s unlikely, but the point remains. But if she could pull it off. If she could get away with it- and find out what it is Peter’s actually hiding- well that would be…

Cindy never lets herself focus on her relentless boredom. She throws herself into her studies instead. And, well, it’s gotten her this far, hasn’t it? But, it’s no longer enough. She’s tired of her perfect, uninteresting life. She needs something else- something greater to fulfill her time. She doubts whatever Peter’s hiding will be that satisfaction she desires, but it’s something. These past few weeks, watching and speculating, and feeling like some sort of undercover agent, have been the most alive she’s felt since she’d almost died at the top of the National Monument last year.

She yearns for that feeling again. The thrill. The risk.

Mind made up, she pulls out her notebook, and puts her plan into motion.

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after Homecoming. Infinity war never happened here.


End file.
